Chaffey College’s Chino campus is home to more to just 3,706 students and about 158 employees — it’s also the home to a colony of burrowing owls. And on Saturday, the owls were the stars at the college’s second annual Burrowing Owl Festival at their Chino campus.

Volunteer Bill Liu of Mira Loma photographs a burrowing owl during the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival held at Chaffey College in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Burrowing owls live on the Chaffey College campus with squirrels, goats and dogs. The second annual Burrowing Owl Festival was held in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Six bird watchers, several feet away from a burrowing owl, leave as soon as they spot a hawk so as not to tip off the owl’s location during the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival held at Chaffey College in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Volunteer Bill Liu of Mira Loma, armed with a “Field guide to Birds,” book, searches for burrowing owls at the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival held at Chaffey College in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. Nearby hawks kept the owls underground and hard to find. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Goats, dogs, squirrels and burrowing owls coexist behind Chaffey College in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. The second annual Burrowing Owl Festival educates the public about burrowing owls. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Chaffey College grad Shyanne Ortiz, from left, Pat Qavi of Chino and volunteer Bill Liu of Mira Loma look for burrowing owls on the school’s Chino, Calif campus during the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Volunteer Bill Liu of Mira Loma, right, co-leads a group as they search for owls at the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival held at Chaffey College in Chino, Calif. on Saturday Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

An adult Burrowing Owl is spotted at the second annual Burrowing Owl Festival on Saturday at Chaffey College in Chino. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The idea came to Robin Ikeda, a professor of biology at Chaffey College, after she transferred to the Chino campus after 20 years at the Rancho Cucamonga campus. To get to know the campus, and what it had to offer for her classes, she went out for a walk.

“I need to be able to engage students in activities that I think are going to be deeply meaningful to them. For me, that’s going outside,” she said.

What Ikeda saw that day surprised her:

“I saw more owls that day than I had in my whole career as a field biologist, which tells you how bad I am at spotting owls,” she laughed.

The Pomona Valley Audubon Society had been working on burrowing owl conservation efforts and they and Ikeda teamed up to help educate local residents about the burrowing owl population and for Ikeda to help train her students on how to better connect with the non-scientist general public.

“This program is not training scientists, but citizens,” Ikeda said.

Saturday’s festival was very family and child-oriented, with book circles for children, along with nature walks and lectures by enthusiasts.

But the main attraction, of course, was the burrowing owls, each of which weighs about half of a full can of soda.

“The burrowing owls are just a lot of fun,” Ikeda said. “They’re very compelling.”

According to the professor, most Inland Empire residents don’t know much about the birds — which used to be abundant throughout the region — or why they need to be protected.

“The owls are a species of special concern. There’s these rich conversation about land use and other uses of land that we’re not necessarily brought up to consider,” Ikeda said. “There’s fodder for all these other conversations.”

The owls are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and considered endangered in Minnesota, threatened in Colorado and a species of concern in multiple states, including California.

A Nov. 10 survey by Chaffey faculty and students showed 15 owls lived at the campus. There are also plans to work with zoologists and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to band the owls and monitor them with mounted cameras. The data will be shared with researchers worldwide.

Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He’s been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he’s covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He’s covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.